Field Scabious is not easily confused with other wild plants on this web site.

This is a very attractive wildflower which is commonly found in dry grassy places throughout the country, blooming from July to late September. It is a tall perennial which has pretty, flattish heads of blue-lilac flowers (30-40mm) which are borne on branched, wiry, purple-spotted stems. The outer flowers are larger than the inner ones and the stamens add to the beauty of the plant by standing upright, making the flower look like a blue pin-cushion. The lower leaves are pinnately lobed, the upper being smaller and less divided. This is a native plant belonging to the family Dipsacaceae.

I first recorded this plant at Killiney, Co Dublin in 1976 and photographed it at Killoughter, Co Wicklow in 2004.

The green elm with the one great bough of goldLets leaves into the grass slip, one by one, The short hill grass, the mushrooms small milk-white,Harebell and scabious and tormentil,That blackberry and gorse, in dew and sun,Bow down to; and the wind travels too lightTo shake the fallen birch leaves from the fern;The gossamers wander at their own will.